Reinforcements

Ria's handling of the Cordova soldiers who had surrendered or been wounded and taken prisoner was divided into three options.

The first was being released after three years of road construction work. This was similar to the previous land reclamation conditions, but this time she was counting on the Cordova soldiers' abilities as military engineers.

The second was immediate release, but with a condition attached this time. This was for those who absolutely had to return to their hometowns. She had heard rumors that the soldiers she had released before were treated as traitors in Cordova.

And the third was the path of working as part of Ria's personal guard.

After letting them make their choices, Ria and her leadership group set out on the road back to Manesh.

What awaited Ria upon arriving at Manesh was the second wave of 20,000 reinforcements from Casalia, along with some familiar faces.

"Lulu! Carlos!"

Yes, among these reinforcements were the magic corps that Lulu belonged to, as well as the knight order that Carlos belonged to. It was a reunion after several months.

For the Ogress army, which had gathered mercenary troops but lacked unit commanders, this was extremely welcome.

And from Lulu, she was also able to hear about the situation in the royal capital. Apparently, the confusion from the minister's assassination had been settled by concluding that the culprit was an agent of a foreign country.

Incidentally, among the soldiers sent in the second wave were many second and third sons of impoverished nobles.

They were undoubtedly aiming for land that would certainly be acquired in the war with Cordova, or land whose lords had been eliminated.

And Lulu had also brought up an incredibly important personal matter.

"Huh? Marriage? You're getting married?"

"No, I haven't given my answer yet, but…"

In the king's private chambers, only her old companions and Ria's wives were gathered. Except for Carlos.

One of the parties involved, Carlos, was excluded.

Yes, Lulu had been proposed to by Carlos.

"Ah… I see… and so?"

"Well, I was wondering what I should do…"

"Even if you consult me about something like that…"

Ria tilted her head.

Carlos was a good man. Yeah, a good man.

He had contracted that disease known as Elf-lover, but since Lulu was a half-elf, that probably wouldn't be a problem. He was devoted and gentlemanly. She had heard that his efforts during their journey with Ria had been recognized, and he had been officially appointed a knight. Not just a single-generation noble, but a hereditary one.

His face wasn't bad either, and she couldn't think of any particular problems.

But even so, she was troubled by being consulted about such a thing.

"So, what did you say to him for now?"

"That I need a little time."

"And what about yourself?"

When asked that, Lulu's eyes reddened slightly.

"I think he's a good person. He thinks about me, he's dependable, and even the parts where he's a bit unreliable are cute in their own way…"

"Then isn't your answer already decided?"

The women nodded in agreement. Even Gig was nodding, so it was all the more obvious.

However, there was one person who raised their hand.

"I think you should wait until after this war is over to give your answer."

It was Serge, the youngest, who shouldn't understand the hearts of women all that well.

"Eh? Why?"

Lulu asked with a puzzled expression, but Ria understood.

"I see, a flag."

"Yeah. The most powerful flag of all: 'I'm going to get married after this war is over!'"

As Serge emphasized his point, even Ria nodded in agreement.

"The conditions certainly are too perfectly aligned. This is bad."

The two of them discussing so seriously naturally caused the expressions of those around them to grow stern.

"What's wrong with that～?"

The one asking without reading the room was Irina, which was a GJ in this case. Incidentally, Maal was being squeezed in her hands.

"Well, it's basically a superstition, but…"

"When a soldier says 'I'm going to get married after this battle is over' before a war, there's a pattern where they die in the next battle."

"That's definitely a superstition."

Carla, who despite being called a saint was an atheist, cut it down decisively.

"But it's certainly something you see a lot in stories."

Shizuna, who had recently been reading many books after being told she needed proper education befitting a queen consort, argued back.

"Well, setting aside whether or not words have power…"

Ria thought about it logically.

"Wouldn't it be fine to say that you'll give your answer after this war is over? That way Carlos will fight desperately to survive in order to hear that answer."

"I see, that makes sense."

After that, the short tea party passed by with cheerful chatter.

"So, that's what happened."

At Ria's explanation, Guinevere gave a disinterested "Hmm."

"While I was desperately sorting through documents, something that fun was happening…"

Fio said enviously, but if she pulled away Fio, who was her secretary, work wouldn't get done.

When would she be able to officially make her a wife? It was one of Ria's headaches.

"More importantly, the plan for the golem corps project is completely finished."

"I'm surprised you had the funds for that."

"I invested my personal fortune. It was originally my country after all."

"Oh… wait, you're using the Uslan Marquis family's money too. Have you talked to Carla about this?"

"What's Carla's is mine, what's mine is also mine. It's fine. Carla will understand if I explain it to her."

Certainly, Carla had no interest in accumulating wealth, and her personal belongings weren't particularly luxurious.

Rather, in Carla's case, she was in a situation where she could live just off of gifts from other nobles.

Even so, the fact that she was managing her territory through a magistrate was barely noble-like.

"Ah, we also need to create the imperial household regulations…"

"That can wait. For now, road maintenance and land reclamation are the highest priority."

"I just want to go to war with Cordova though…"

"For that, please move supplies through the paperwork."

"Damn it. Come on, let the war start alrea～dy."

While checking each document that Fio placed before her and stamping her seal, she noticed something.

"This Black Cat Company seems to be supplying us with quite a lot of goods."

"The Black Cat Company is mainly a famous transportation company in Lemdria, but they should have a branch in Casalia as well. They've been doing business with Cordova for years, but it seems they've recently changed their policy."

In other words, they had abandoned the declining Cordova.

If merchants with good information networks were making that judgment, then Ogress's power must be becoming widely recognized even to outside observers.

"I'd like to meet with the company head at least once. Could you arrange that?"

"The branch manager might be possible, but the company head would be difficult. His name seems to be Yamato, but I barely know of anyone who's met him."

"Hold on."

Ria found herself stopping involuntarily.

"… The head of Black Cat is named Yamato?"

"Yes. It seems to be a name passed down from generation to generation. There's even talk about who the true identity of Yamato, whom no one knows and isn't supposed to know, really is. Although they technically call themselves a secret society, everyone knows them as the Black Cat Company."

"Ah, I see."

Without a doubt, the founder was probably a reincarnator or someone who had been summoned.

"Well, there's also the matter of goods accumulation, so I'd like to meet with their representative at least once. Let's see… the person in charge is Fernasa Cristor… Cristor family, huh."

The Cristor family. It was also Ria's mother's maiden name, but in truth, it wasn't a surname passed down through generations.

It was a special surname that mages took, just as Ria had casually given it to Serge. Conversely, mages who bore this surname were generally considered full-fledged.

For example, her mother received this surname from Rufus, and Rufus had received it from Azelford. As for Ria, since she had high magical power from birth, she had naturally been given this surname.

In other words, this woman named Fernasa was also quite a skilled mage.

"Then, I'll confirm whether she's willing to meet."

"Yeah, please do."

Having finished her routine work, Ria spread out a map on the now-empty desk.

It was a map of Cordova's territory. Of course, it wasn't particularly accurate, but it was better than nothing.

"Still, Cordova being able to mobilize 500,000 troops seems like some kind of joke…"

"If you include reserves and minors, there are even more. Of course, they can't use all of them since they need to maintain border defenses and prevent rebellions."

"Well, I suppose that's true. Even so, how is it that with such oppression, there are no rebellions?"

It seemed like they should happen. When she said that, Guinevere looked surprised.

"You don't know? They have an informant system. And if one person starts a rebellion, the entire family is executed under guilt by association."

"That's the worst…"

What kind of medieval country was this? Well, this was a medieval-style world, after all.

"But in exchange, they'll be incredibly happy if you liberate them. After all, any administration would be better than one that keeps them starving year-round."

"But then, we'll need to prepare food supplies to distribute to the populace to gain their support too… There's no way Serge alone can handle that."

Then the problem was logistics.

Truly, she thought Cordova was a strong country. It wasn't simply that their military power was strong, but the entire country existed in a twisted way for the sake of war.

Why was this country built so thoroughly for war? If she had time to investigate, she wanted to look into it.

"Once we enter Cordova's territory, there's one advantage."

"Oh?"

At this point, she wanted to hear any advantage, even just one.

"That country has fully paved and maintained all of its roads. Marching armies and transporting supplies will be easier."

"I see, so first we need to take one of their border strongholds…"

No.

No, no.

More than that, they needed to do something the enemy would hate even more.

If they took one of the enemy's strongholds, they would be able to move freely within Cordova.

In that case, rather than just one, shouldn't they take as many border strongholds as possible?

After all, the main force of their army consisted of Casalia and Manesh soldiers. But they wouldn't be able to defeat Cordova's 500,000-strong army without using the armies of other countries.

Ria immersed herself in her thoughts.

The more a general used their head, the fewer soldier casualties there would be.

Ria was far from hating bloodshed — she actually loved it — but needlessly spilling her allies' blood was a different matter.

"Fio, from tomorrow, increase the number of meetings with ambassadors and military officers from countries bordering Cordova, as well as merchants who do business with Cordova."

"That would mean reducing my sleep time, though…"

"… Well, Guinevere will probably help with about half."

"Ugh."

"Just so you know, I'm only working hard until this war is over. After that, I'm leaving all the domestic affairs to you."

Ria's irresponsible statement, unbecoming of a ruler, somehow felt pleasant to Guinevere instead.